A systematic approach for integrated product, materials, and design-process design

Designers are challenged to manage customer, technology, and socio-economic uncertainty causing dynamic, unquenchable demands on limited resources. In this context, increased concept flexibility, referring to a designer s ability to generate concepts, is crucial. Concept flexibility can be significantly increased through the integrated design of product and material concepts. Hence, the challenge is to leverage knowledge of material structure-property relations that significantly affect system concepts for function-based, systematic design of product and materials concepts in an integrated fashion. However, having selected an integrated product and material system concept, managing complexity in embodiment design-processes is important. Facing a complex network of decisions and evolving analysis models a designer needs the flexibility to systematically generate and evaluate embodiment design-process alternatives. In order to address these challenges and respond to the primary research question of how to increase a designer s concept and design-process flexibility to enhance product creation in the conceptual and early embodiment design phases, the primary hypothesis in this dissertation is embodied as a systematic approach for integrated product, materials and design-process design. The systematic approach consists of two components i) a function-based, systematic approach to the integrated design of product and material concepts from a systems perspective, and ii) a systematic strategy to design-process generation and selection based on a decision-centric perspective and a value-of-information-based Process Performance Indicator. The systematic approach is validated using the validation-square approach that consists of theoretical and empirical validation. Empirical validation of the framework is carried out using various examples including: i) design of a reactive material containment system, and ii) design of an optoelectronic communication system.Ph.D.Committee Chair: Allen, Janet K.; Committee Member: Aidun, Cyrus K.; Committee Member: Klein, Benjamin; Committee Member: McDowell, David L.; Committee Member: Mistree, Farrokh; Committee Member: Yoder, Douglas P

Systems Engineering

The book "Systems Engineering: Practice and Theory" is a collection of articles written by developers and researches from all around the globe. Mostly they present methodologies for separate Systems Engineering processes; others consider issues of adjacent knowledge areas and sub-areas that significantly contribute to systems development, operation, and maintenance. Case studies include aircraft, spacecrafts, and space systems development, post-analysis of data collected during operation of large systems etc. Important issues related to "bottlenecks" of Systems Engineering, such as complexity, reliability, and safety of different kinds of systems, creation, operation and maintenance of services, system-human communication, and management tasks done during system projects are addressed in the collection. This book is for people who are interested in the modern state of the Systems Engineering knowledge area and for systems engineers involved in different activities of the area. Some articles may be a valuable source for university lecturers and students; most of case studies can be directly used in Systems Engineering courses as illustrative materials

Integration + Innovation: Proceedings of the 2019 Building Technology Educators\u27 Society Conference

This volume contains papers, abstracts, and posters from the 2019 Building Technology Educators\u27 Society (BTES) Conference, which focused on Integration and Innovation as the theme. Innovation can begin with conjecture, with a searching for more effective solutions, or with an application to currently unknown or unarticulated needs. Innovation scholarship examines the personal intellectual habits that support new ideas, such as openness and exploratory behavior, as well as the circumstances behind the places in which creativity flourishes, such as support for cross-disciplinary fertilization and access to resources. The 2019 BTES conference explored the role of technology education and curriculum in cultivating these intellectual habits in our students (and ourselves) and in creating the organizational spaces in which the future of practice will be shaped. Sessions shared exemplary proposals of research and pedagogical applications that explore innovative practices and integrative thinking in the academy and profession

Total Quality Management and Six Sigma

In order to survive in a modern and competitive environment, organizations need to carefully organize their activities regarding quality management. TQM and six sigma are the approaches that have been successful in solving intricate quality problems in products and services. This volume can help those who are interested in the quality management field to understand core ideas along with contemporary efforts done in the field and authored as case studies in this volume. This volume may be useful to students, academics and practitioners across diversified disciplines

Technical Reports: Langley Aerospace Research Summer Scholars

The Langley Aerospace Research Summer Scholars (LARSS) Program was established by Dr. Samuel E. Massenberg in 1986. The program has increased from 20 participants in 1986 to 114 participants in 1995. The program is LaRC-unique and is administered by Hampton University. The program was established for the benefit of undergraduate juniors and seniors and first-year graduate students who are pursuing degrees in aeronautical engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, material science, computer science, atmospheric science, astrophysics, physics, and chemistry. Two primary elements of the LARSS Program are: (1) a research project to be completed by each participant under the supervision of a researcher who will assume the role of a mentor for the summer, and (2) technical lectures by prominent engineers and scientists. Additional elements of this program include tours of LARC wind tunnels, computational facilities, and laboratories. Library and computer facilities will be available for use by the participants

Design exploration through bidirectional modeling of constraints

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2006.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Includes bibliographical references (p. 315-324).Today digital models for design exploration are not used to their full potential. The research efforts in the past decades have placed geometric design representations firmly at the center of digital design environments. In this thesis it is argued that models for design exploration that bridge different representation aid in the discovery of novel designs. Replacing commonly used analytical, uni-directional models for linking representations, with bidirectional ones, further supports design exploration. The key benefit of bidirectional models is the ability to swap the role of driver and driven in the exploration. The thesis developed around a set of design experiments that tested the integration of bidirectional computational models in domain specific designs. From the experiments three main exploration types emerged. They are: branching explorations for establishing constraints for an undefined design problem; illustrated in the design of a concept car. Circular explorations for the refinement of constraint relationships; illustrated in the design of a chair. Parallel explorations for exercising well-understood constraints; illustrated in a form finding model in architecture. A key contribution of the thesis is the novel use of constraint diagrams developed to construct design explorers for the experiments. The diagrams show the importance of translations between design representations in establishing design drivers from the set of constraints. The incomplete mapping of design features across different representations requires the redescription of the design for each translation.(cont.) This redescription is a key aspect of exploration and supports design innovation. Finally, this thesis argues that the development of design specific design explorers favors a shift in software design away from monolithic, integrated software environments and towards open software platforms that support user development.by Axel Kilian.Ph.D

Additive Manufacturing for Nautical Design An Automated Approach to Marine Manufacturing

How can additive manufacturing (AM) technology be applied to automate the production of small marine vessels? For the past 50 years small (below 40 meters) marine vessel manufacturing has been dominated by moulded fiber-reinforced plastics (FRP). There are several shortcomings to this manufacturing method that affect both the formal outcome and the manufacturing process of boats built in FRP: 1) manufacturing requires the use of expensive moulds, 2) formal geometric freedom is limited by moulds which reduce the potential for customization, and 3) special assemblies and structural reinforcements must be moulded separately and joined using a time-consuming hand lay-up process. The use of AM may reduce cost of production by eliminating need for moulds, allow greater ease of customization, and improve worker safety by limiting exposure to harmful materials and chemicals. The purpose of this research project is to evaluate existing AM technology and assess its potential for application to small marine vessel manufacturing. The project aims to investigate new methods for generating novel AM tool paths and demonstrate through proof of concept that it may be possible to produce the complex topological surfaces and assemblies that are common in marine vessels using multi-bias additive manufacturing (MBAM). However, AM is a broad term that describes a variety of different ways to manufacture objects. As such, AM can be applied to marine manufacturing in a variety of different ways, in different phases of the manufacturing process, and to different extents. At the same time, building boats is a complex process that presents specific problems that must be addressed in any automation solution. Several marine vessel construction projects have already been completed using AM which can serve as case studies for understanding the opportunities and challenges for applying AM to the marine sector. A review of the current state of the technology and qualitative analysis (QA) of case studies provides a set of guidelines for designing a manufacturing method that may prove effective for producing small marine vessels using AM. The project relied on design-based research (DBR) to develop a series of experimental extruder prototypes for novel toolpath testing on excerpts from a small reference vessel. The combination of QA and DBR experimentation point to a manufacturing solution using articulated robotic manipulators and a continuous fiber thermoset plastic extruder using a modified version of the fused filament fabrication process. This kinematic solution can be extended with external linear or rotational axes and/or by mounting robotic manipulators within a large gantry. This will allow the extruder to approach the work using a wide range of orientations that will be optimal for both the geometry of marine vessels and the requirements of MBAM extrusion. Meanwhile, toolpath generation using the software Grasshopper with KukaPRC plugin demonstrated a proof of concept for creating MBAM toolpaths optimized for small marine vessels. While the method proved feasible for smaller excerpts there remain significant challenges to successful deployment of this manufacturing method that can only be addressed with additional research

ICT and pedagogy in the context of transformation and design & technology teaching

This research addresses pedagogy in relation to Information & Communication Technology (ICT) in secondary education. Computers have been used in classrooms for approximately thirty years, but it remains unclear whether teachers’ pedagogies have changed much in consequence. Thus this research explores the transformation of pedagogy through Information and Communication Technology (ICT). In 1998 a 2-year, multi-site case study linking teams of students and teachers within four broad UK regions was begun. A further six-year period allowed analysis of research data, to support theory building in relation to transformation of teachers’ pedagogy and the conditions necessary to make pedagogical transformation possible. The research made use of Grounded Theory within a case study methodology. Varied data were collected through my records of planning meetings with teachers and engineers during the project; of pedagogical transformation while visiting schools involved in the project; of teachers’, engineers’ and pupils’ case study interview data where more insightful and directly focused questions on pedagogical issues from their different perspectives were involved, and of teachers’ subject knowledge arising from the combined school and industrial manufacturing situated context of the project. The case study interviews involved a representative sample of those taking part in the two-year school and industry project. Theory on pedagogical transformation has resulted from the analysis of these data. Developing this involved modelling alternative meanings of phenomena observed during the case study and developing new concepts as building blocks of the theory. I also used NVivo as a tool to help with handling the mass of raw data collected during the project and with aspects of the qualitative data management. The research concludes that teachers may personally reconstruct their pedagogies when faced in certain ways with certain new pedagogy precedents, and develops precedence as a pre-condition of pedagogical transformation.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Making modality: transmodal composing in a digital media studio.

The multiple media that exist for communication have historically been theorized as possessing different available means for persuasion and meaning-making. The exigence of these means has been the object of theoretical debate that ranges from cultural studies, language studies, semiology, and philosophies of the mind. This dissertation contributes to such debates by sharing the results of an ethnographically informed study of multimedia composing in a digital media studio. Drawing from Cultural Historical Activity Theory and theories of enactive perception, I analyze the organizational and infrastructural design of a media studio as well as the activity of composer/designers working in said studio. Throughout this analysis I find that implicit in the organization and infrastructure of the media studio is an ethos of conceptualizing communication technology as a legitimizing force. Such an ethos is troubled by my analysis of composer/designers working in the studio, whose activities do not seek outside legitimization but instead contribute to the media milieu. Following these analyses, I conclude that media’s means for persuasion and meaning-making emerge from local practices of communication and design. Finally, I provide a framework for studying the emergence of such means